SME growth coaching mentorship program, In under 12 months, Greendot helped Eris Lifesciences cut costs by ₹17–20 Lakhs, eliminate overtime, and drive a 50% productivity surge — without adding a single new machine.
Most pharmaceutical manufacturers know their production lines could run smarter. But knowing and doing are two very different things. Eris Lifesciences, one of India’s Top 21 pharma companies, faced exactly this gap — until Greendot stepped in with a structured, data-driven transformation programme.
Here’s how we did it, and what it means for businesses like yours.
About the Client
Eris Lifesciences Ltd is a publicly listed Indian pharmaceutical company and a leading player in domestic branded formulations. Ranked #21 in the Indian Pharmaceutical Market (IPM), Eris has built a dominant presence in cardio-metabolic care within just 17 years of inception. Today, the company is aggressively expanding into high-growth therapeutic areas — Dermatology, Neuropsychiatry, Women’s Health, and Nephrology — which together account for 29% of revenues.
Chronic and sub-chronic therapies represent approximately 86% of Eris’s business, covering nearly 90% of India’s ₹55,000+ crore chronic care market. With scale comes complexity, SME growth coaching mentorship program and Eris recognised that their production infrastructure needed to match the ambition of their commercial growth.
The Challenge They Faced
When Eris Lifesciences approached Greendot, their manufacturing operations were underperforming against their own benchmarks. The symptoms were clear — but the root causes were scattered across culture, process, and systems.
Workplace Organisation Was Broken
- 5S awareness was virtually non-existent across departments
- No visual controls, no standardised practices, no safety plans
- Initial 5S assessment score: just 14 out of 100
No Culture of Continuous Improvement
- Kaizen activities were absent — no baseline processes, no employee buy-in
- Employees had limited exposure to waste-reduction thinking
- Baseline Kaizen engagement score: 2
Excessive Changeover Times Were Bleeding Efficiency
The most quantifiable pain point was changeover time — the time lost every time a production line switches from one product to another. The numbers told a stark story:
- Granulation lines: 26% of available time lost to changeovers (avg. 200 min)
- Compression lines: 32% of available time lost (avg. 300 min)
- Packing lines: 12% of available time lost (avg. 200 min)
Every wasted minute was a wasted rupee. Every unplanned stoppage was a missed shipment. Eris needed a partner who could diagnose the real problem, design the right solution, and execute without disrupting live production. That partner was Greendot.
Greendot’s Approach — From Strategy to Execution
Greendot deployed a structured, three-pillar transformation methodology — integrating 5S, Kaizen, and SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) into a single, SME growth coaching mentorship program cohesive programme. Here’s how each phase unfolded:
Phase 1 — 5S Implementation: Building the Foundation
Before any efficiency programme can succeed, the workplace must be under control. Greendot began with intensive 5S training across all levels of the organisation, focusing on the first three stages: Sort, Set in Order, and Shine.
- Launched ‘1-Minute Sort’ and ‘5-Minute Shine’ daily activities to build habit quickly
- Deployed Red and Yellow Tag strategies to surface and resolve workplace problems visually
- Introduced PEEP — ‘Place for Everything, Everything in its Place’ — as the guiding principle
- Documented 91 One Point Lessons (OPLs) to capture, standardise, and transfer knowledge
- Established regular cleaning and inspection routines across all departments
Phase 2 — Kaizen: Activating the People System
Greendot’s Kaizen programme turned employees from bystanders into problem-solvers. Through structured training and guided workshops, we built a bottom-up culture of improvement — the kind that sustains results long after the consultants have left.
- Conducted Kaizen awareness sessions covering waste identification, flow analysis, and root-cause thinking
- Facilitated 38 Kaizen projects — including 11 major Kaizens with direct cost impact
- Targeted waste in product yields, paper consumption, QMS processing time, energy, and materials
- Created a structured feedback system so improvements could be tracked, measured, and rewarded
Phase 3 — SMED: Attacking Changeover Time
This was where the most dramatic financial returns were realised. Greendot’s SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) specialists worked directly on the production floor, separating internal and external changeover tasks, standardising procedures, and enabling parallel execution.
Changeover reductions achieved:
- Granulation IV: 5 hours → 3 hours (40% reduction)
- Compression V: 300 min → 190 min (37% reduction)
- Strip Packing I: 220 min → 90 min (59% reduction — best result)
- Capsule Filling I: 180 min → 110 min (39% reduction)
- Coating II: 180 min → 87 min (52% reduction)
- Granulation II: 240 min → 177 min (26% reduction)
Tools & Methods We Used
| Tool / Method | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Tool / Method | Purpose |
| 5S Methodology | Established a clean, organised, and standardised work environment as the performance foundation |
| Kaizen Framework | Built employee-led continuous improvement habits to eliminate operational waste systematically |
| SMED Techniques | Reduced machine changeover times, unlocking idle production capacity and eliminating overtime |
| One Point Lessons (OPLs) | Captured 91 process-specific learnings to standardise best practices across shifts and teams |
| Red/Yellow Tag Strategy | Visual management system to identify, classify, and resolve non-conformances in real time |
| KPI Monitoring Dashboards | Data-driven tracking of 5S scores, Kaizen completion rates, and changeover benchmarks |
Results That Speak for Themselves
Greendot’s transformation programme delivered measurable, auditable results across every dimension we targeted. Here’s the full picture:
The Numbers — A Snapshot of Growth
| Cost Savings | ₹17–20 Lakhs INR |
| Productivity Gain | 50% Improvement |
| Changeover Reduction | Up to 59% |
| Kaizen Projects | 38 Implemented |
| 5S Score (QA Dept) | 15 / 15 (Perfect) |
| Annual Energy Savings | ₹1,42,715 |
| OPLs Documented | 91 One Point Lessons |
| HPLC Solvent Savings | ₹9,47,175 / Year |
Detailed Breakdown of Savings
Yield Improvement (Tendia M): Product yield climbed from 93.91% to 97.71%, generating a direct saving of ₹3,17,489.
QMS Document Processing: Reduced waiting time in quality management workflows, saving 525 hours and ₹39,000 annually.
Polybag Usage Reduction: Monthly packaging savings of ₹1,60,650 achieved through material rationalization.
HPLC Solvent Optimization: Improved solvent usage control delivered ₹9,47,175 in annual savings — the single largest Kaizen win.
Cooling Tower Energy: Annual energy savings of ₹1,42,715 through systematic cooling optimization.
Swab Sampling Efficiency: Reduced sampling frequency saved ₹1,39,460 and 820 hours per year.
Paper Consumption: Reduced A4 usage saves ₹3,680 per month — a small number that signals a bigger culture shift.
The cumulative impact: the plant now operates at the same output levels with reduced working hours, zero overtime, and a cleaner, safer environment that’s fully audit-ready — a visible transformation that impresses regulators, customers, and employees alike.
“The QA department achieved a perfect 5S self-assessment score of 15 out of 15 — a result unheard of before Greendot’s intervention.”
What This Could Mean for Your Business
If you’re a business owner, operations head, or founder in any industry — manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, food processing, engineering, or logistics — this case study speaks directly to you.
The operational inefficiencies that cost Eris Lifesciences crores every year aren’t unique to pharma. They exist in every organisation that has grown faster than its systems. SME growth coaching mentorship program, Greendot’s role isn’t just to fix processes — it’s to build the internal culture and measurement systems that keep improving long after we’ve left.
The brands and businesses Greendot works with don’t just save costs. They become leaner, more confident, more credible — and more competitive. Whether it’s operational excellence, brand transformation, or digital growth, we build the strategy and execute it with you, step by step.
